Hangman code

[St33med]

Making a hangman code (I'm a n00b, still in the tutorial stage)

Anyway, here's my (top-secret) code:

def guess():
    choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
    if len(choice)>1:
        print "Don't cheat!"
        guess()
    elif guess in y:
        b[z.find(choice)]=choice
        print "Good Choice!"
        print ''.join(b)
        guess()
    
def main():
    x=raw_input("Type a name")
    y=x.lower().split(' ')
    z=''.join(y)
    print z
    b=['_ ']*len(z)
    print ''.join(b)
    guess()

if __name__=='__main__':
    main()

Anyways, I get down to line 6 and it tells me that global name z is not defined. I'm guessing I have to put the z thing in there, but I don't know how.

What should I do?
P.S. the code is still in development. That is why it is not finished.

[bartonc]

Making a hangman code (I'm a n00b, still in the tutorial stage)

Anyway, here's my (top-secret) code:

def guess():
    choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
    if len(choice)>1:
        print "Don't cheat!"
        guess()
    elif guess in y:
        b[z.find(choice)]=choice
        print "Good Choice!"
        print ''.join(b)
        guess()
    
def main():
    x=raw_input("Type a name")
    y=x.lower().split(' ')
    z=''.join(y)
    print z
    b=['_ ']*len(z)
    print ''.join(b)
    guess()

if __name__=='__main__':
    main()

Anyways, I get down to line 6 and it tells me that global name z is not defined. I'm guessing I have to put the z thing in there, but I don't know how.

What should I do?
P.S. the code is still in development. That is why it is not finished.

Hi St33med. Most code we see here is "still in development"; we're here to help you get it working. So, welcome to the Python help forum on TSDN!

This is an issue of "scope". The scope rules say that variables assigned in a function are "local" to that function. I quick way to make this work is (but maybe not the best):

def guess():
    choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
    if len(choice)>1:
        print "Don't cheat!"
        guess()
    elif guess in y:
        b[z.find(choice)]=choice
        print "Good Choice!"
        print ''.join(b)
        guess()
    
if __name__=='__main__':
    x=raw_input("Type a name")
    y=x.lower().split(' ')
    z=''.join(y)
    print z
    b=['_ ']*len(z)
    print ''.join(b)
    guess()

I'm in a rush at this second, but I'll have some time in just a bit...
Thanks for joining.

[bartonc]

Hi St33med. Most code we see here is "still in development"; we're here to help you get it working. So, welcome to the Python help forum on TSDN!

This is an issue of "scope". The scope rules say that variables assigned in a function are "local" to that function. I quick way to make this work is (but maybe not the best):

def guess():
    choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
    if len(choice)>1:
        print "Don't cheat!"
        guess()
    elif guess in y:
        b[z.find(choice)]=choice
        print "Good Choice!"
        print ''.join(b)
        guess()
    
if __name__=='__main__':
    x=raw_input("Type a name")
    y=x.lower().split(' ')
    z=''.join(y)
    print z
    b=['_ ']*len(z)
    print ''.join(b)
    guess()

I'm in a rush at this second, but I'll have some time in just a bit...
Thanks for joining.

What this does is put the varaibles x, y and z into the module scope. As such, they can be "seen" by functions that are also in that scope. This use of "global" scope variables is good for learning because it is fairly simple. There are lot's of other things to change before we get to the final working program, but let's take it one step at a time. And HAVE FUN.

[St33med]

Well, the code worked and I made some enhancements:

def guess():
    choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
    a=type.find(str(choice))
    if len(choice)>1:
        print "Don't cheat!"
        guess()
    elif a!=-1:
        b[a]=str(choice)
        print "Good Choice!"
        c=''.join(b)
        print c
        if type==c:
            print "You Win!"
        else:
            guess()
    else:
        d+=1
        e[d]=choice
        if d==0:
            print "O",e
            guess()
        elif d==1:
            print e,"O<"
            guess()
        elif d==2:
            print e,"0<-"
            guess()
        elif d==3:
            print e,"O<-<\n Game Over"
            
if __name__=='__main__':
    type=raw_input("Type a name:")
    type=''.join(type.lower().split(' '))
    #print type
    b=['_ ']*len(type)
    print ''.join(b)
    d=-1
    e=['']*5
    guess()

The problem with this code is that it tells me that d was referenced before assignment. If I put d in def guess, then it will always return d to -1 and the guy taking guesses will have infinite amount of guesses. That might have been why you said that the solution was not the best. What should I do?

[ghostdog74]

Well, the code worked and I made some enhancements:

def guess():
    choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
    a=type.find(str(choice))
    if len(choice)>1:
        print "Don't cheat!"
        guess()
    elif a!=-1:
        b[a]=str(choice)
        print "Good Choice!"
        c=''.join(b)
        print c
        if type==c:
            print "You Win!"
        else:
            guess()
    else:
        d+=1
        e[d]=choice
        if d==0:
            print "O",e
            guess()
        elif d==1:
            print e,"O<"
            guess()
        elif d==2:
            print e,"0<-"
            guess()
        elif d==3:
            print e,"O<-<\n Game Over"
            
if __name__=='__main__':
    type=raw_input("Type a name:")
    type=''.join(type.lower().split(' '))
    #print type
    b=['_ ']*len(type)
    print ''.join(b)
    d=-1
    e=['']*5
    guess()

The problem with this code is that it tells me that d was referenced before assignment. If I put d in def guess, then it will always return d to -1 and the guy taking guesses will have infinite amount of guesses. That might have been why you said that the solution was not the best. What should I do?

in your guess() function, 'd' is never 'initialized' before you do d+=1.
Either you pass 'd' value into guess(), as in guess(d) , or use global.

[bartonc]

What my friend ghostdog74 means is:

def guess():
    global d
    choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
    a=type.find(str(choice))
    if len(choice)>1:
        print "Don't cheat!"
        guess()
    elif a!=-1:
        b[a]=str(choice)
        print "Good Choice!"
        c=''.join(b)
        print c
        if type==c:
            print "You Win!"
        else:
            guess()
    else:
        d+=1
        e[d]=choice
        if d==0:
            print "O",e
            guess()
        elif d==1:
            print e,"O<"
            guess()
        elif d==2:
            print e,"0<-"
            guess()
        elif d==3:
            print e,"O<-<\n Game Over"

if __name__=='__main__':
    type=raw_input("Type a name:")
    type=''.join(type.lower().split(' '))
    #print type
    b=['_ ']*len(type)
    print ''.join(b)
    d=-1
    e=['']*5
    guess()

It's very cute! I ran it and it work using this global scope technique. You a really quit a good pythoneer. Keep it up! Next you may want to play with parameter passing (also as GD has suggested).

[ghostdog74]

Just an opinion of mine, its better to use while loop for tasks like this:
for example:

while 1:
         ask for input
         if input is quit or exit:
                break
         else:
                call your functions.

In the original code, guess() is defined as a function, but in it, there are also calls to guess() itself. In programming concepts, this is something like recursion. Before the first call to guess() has returned to caller, another guess() gets called and so on. The stack gets slowly "filled up" due to storing of return addresses and etc etc......at least that's how i feel.

[bvdet]

What my friend ghostdog74 means is:

def guess():
    global d
    choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
    a=type.find(str(choice))
    if len(choice)>1:
        print "Don't cheat!"
        guess()
    elif a!=-1:
        b[a]=str(choice)
        print "Good Choice!"
        c=''.join(b)
        print c
        if type==c:
            print "You Win!"
        else:
            guess()
    else:
        d+=1
        e[d]=choice
        if d==0:
            print "O",e
            guess()
        elif d==1:
            print e,"O<"
            guess()
        elif d==2:
            print e,"0<-"
            guess()
        elif d==3:
            print e,"O<-<\n Game Over"

if __name__=='__main__':
    type=raw_input("Type a name:")
    type=''.join(type.lower().split(' '))
    #print type
    b=['_ ']*len(type)
    print ''.join(b)
    d=-1
    e=['']*5
    guess()

It's very cute! I ran it and it work using this global scope technique. You a really quit a good pythoneer. Keep it up! Next you may want to play with parameter passing (also as GD has suggested).

It does work well. However, if you enter a word that has two of the same letter as in "sell", you can never solve it. You should not use a variable name that masks a Python built-in function (type). We had another thread on Hangman recently, and we used this function to determine the occurances of a letter in a word:

def indexList(s, item, i=0):
    i_list = []
    while True:
        try:
            i = s.index(item, i)
            i_list.append(i)
            i += 1
        except:
            break
    return i_list

I agree with ghostdog74 abot the use of a loop instead of recursion. I also encourage you to avoid using global variables where possible. As in the function listed above, the word (s) and letter (item) are passed to get_index() and in return we receive a list of indices or an empty list if there were no occurances of 'item' in 's':

>>> iLst = indexList('mississippi', 's')
>>> iLst
[2, 3, 5, 6]
>>> hint_string = '_'*len('mississippi')
>>> for i in iLst:
... 	lst = [hint_string[:i], ]
... 	if len(hint_string) >= i+1:
... 		lst.append(hint_string[(i+1):])
... 	hint_string = 's'.join(lst)
... 	
>>> hint_string
'__ss_ss____'
>>>

[St33med]

Well here is my code, almost finished:

import sys
def guess(d,x,e):
            choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
            a=type.find(str(choice))
            if len(choice)>1:
                print "Don't cheat!"
                guess(d,x,e)
            elif a!=-1:
                b[a]=str(choice)
                print "Good Choice!"
                c=''.join(b)
                print c, e
                if type==c:
                    print "You Win!"
                    sys.exit()
                else:
                    guess(d,x,e)
            else:
                d+=x
                if guess in e:
                    print "You have already guessed this!"
                    guess(d,x,e)
                e[d]=choice
                if d==0:
                    print "O"
                    x=1
                elif d==1:
                    print "O<"
                    x=2
                elif d==2:
                    print "0<-"
                    x=3
                elif d==3:
                    print "O<-<\n Game Over"
                    sys.exit()
                print "Letters Guessed: ", ' '.join(e)
                guess(d,x,e)
if __name__=='__main__':
    type=raw_input("Type a name:")
    type=''.join(type.lower().split(' '))
    #print type
    b=['_ ']*len(type)
    print ''.join(b)
    d=0
    x=0
    e=['']*4
    guess(d,x,e)

Where should I put this indexList?

[bvdet]

Well here is my code, almost finished:

import sys
def guess(d,x,e):
            choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
            a=type.find(str(choice))
            if len(choice)>1:
                print "Don't cheat!"
                guess(d,x,e)
            elif a!=-1:
                b[a]=str(choice)
                print "Good Choice!"
                c=''.join(b)
                print c, e
                if type==c:
                    print "You Win!"
                    sys.exit()
                else:
                    guess(d,x,e)
            else:
                d+=x
                if guess in e:
                    print "You have already guessed this!"
                    guess(d,x,e)
                e[d]=choice
                if d==0:
                    print "O"
                    x=1
                elif d==1:
                    print "O<"
                    x=2
                elif d==2:
                    print "0<-"
                    x=3
                elif d==3:
                    print "O<-<\n Game Over"
                    sys.exit()
                print "Letters Guessed: ", ' '.join(e)
                guess(d,x,e)
if __name__=='__main__':
    type=raw_input("Type a name:")
    type=''.join(type.lower().split(' '))
    #print type
    b=['_ ']*len(type)
    print ''.join(b)
    d=0
    x=0
    e=['']*4
    guess(d,x,e)

Where should I put this indexList?

Anywhere above "if __name__ == '__main__':"

[St33med]

Anywhere above "if __name__ == '__main__':"

And then put the indexList in what part of the code?

[bvdet]

And then put the indexList in what part of the code?

You will need to rework your code somewhat, because you have a list of indices instead of a single index. Here's a start:

        def guess(d,x,e):
            choice = raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
            aList = indexList(word, choice)
            ...........................
            elif len(aList) > 0:
                print 'There are %d occurrances of %s in %s' % (len(aList), choice, word)

Notice that I am using 'word' instead of 'type'.

[St33med]

Need an explanation of what indexList does. I'm just having a hard time following what it does.

[St33med]

Never mind about last. The problem is when I put aList as the element in b (as in b[aList]=str(choice)) , it tells me that aList needs to be an integer, not a list. How do I transform aList into an integer?

[bartonc]

Need an explanation of what indexList does. I'm just having a hard time following what it does.

def indexList(s, item, i=0):
    i_list = []
    while True:
        try:
            i = s.index(item, i)
            i_list.append(i)
            i += 1
        except:
            break
    return i_list

returns a list of inexes for every occurance of item in s.